The Wrestling Thread

[Ludo*1]

Went to a WWE event in Aberdeen a few year back, paid quite a bit to get near ringside tickets. Our view was awful, but luckily the event wasn't near sold out so we made our way up into the 'cheap seats' and found some of the best seats in the house.

[mizfit]

I went to the Glasgow live show last year and our seating was fucking horrendous, ringside it said but was 10 rows back and there was a kid who stood on his seat the whole time blocking my view

[Ludo*1]

I went to the Glasgow live show last year and our seating was fucking horrendous, ringside it said but was 10 rows back and there was a kid who stood on his seat the whole time blocking my view

Similar experience to me. WWE's seating plan is absolutely atrocious, there were seats that weren't even facing the ring, and one was placed directly behind a pillar. The overall show was much more amateur as well. A main event of Drew McIntyre vs Kane for the title summed up their efforts of connecting with the crowd.

Unless you're going to the US or a televised event, going to a TNA show is a much better experience all round.

[DomDom]

Tonight's the night!

[Derek Patterson]

Why is Kenny Shiels narrating youtube wrestling game videos?

[DA Baracus]

Went to a WWE event in Aberdeen a few year back, paid quite a bit to get near ringside tickets. Our view was awful, but luckily the event wasn't near sold out so we made our way up into the 'cheap seats' and found some of the best seats in the house.

I may have been at the same one. Main event was Kane vs Big Show for the title? CM Punk ran in and smashed Show with a chair.

I was in the cheap seats and had a great view.

[DomDom]

Floor seats, unless you're very near the front, tend to be shit. I much prefer tiered seating.

[Bert Raccoon]

Went to Mayhem In Manchester years ago and we were sat at the very back. Not the best view but we could still easily see everything that was going on.

Cracking event as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWF_Mayhem_in_Manchester

[#Gary]

I've never been so uninterested in a WrestleMania before. Don't even know if I'll bother watching.

[DomDom]

ICW was incredible. Robbie Dynamite and Mikey Whiplash may have had the match of the weekend.

[dave-92]

ICW was incredible. Robbie Dynamite and Mikey Whiplash may have had the match of the weekend.

agree with this best match I've ever seen live, was a good show but we missed the end of the main event because my mate passed out

[DomDom]

agree with this best match I've ever seen live, was a good show but we missed the end of the main event because my mate passed out

I left before the main event to head to my mate's for Mania, but it appears I got my money's worth. Some of the shit they were coming out with was unreal.

Jay Lethal vs. Michael Elgin from ROH is worth seeking out, and the absolutely batshit insane ladder fray from Dragon Gate USA.

[Staggiesontherise]

Second the Lethal/Elgin recommendation, I'd add the American Wolves/reDRagon match to that recommendation too, the finish was a let down but everything before that was close to flawless.

[DomDom]

Bret Hart thinks Michael McGillicutty should end the streak.

[PrestersKTID]

Bret Hart thinks Michael McGillicutty should end the streak.

Goldberg must've kicked him harder than first feared.

[DomDom]

WWE Wrestlemania II

This one was held in many different arenas. Not a trick they'd try again afterwards, which is good, because it did my head in. Uniondale, Rosemont and Los Angeles are the venues for the show.

"The Magnificent" Don Muraco vs. "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff

Orndorff was full blown babyface by this time. We get some casual racism from Orndorff as he does the squinty eyes at Mr. Fuji. You do still see some pretty tasteless stuff today, but could you imagine seeing that in WWE these days? The match never really got going before the poor finish which is a shame. Both guys seemed to be starting what was building into a nice wee match. The fans chant "Bullshit" at the finish, which is an amazing thing to hear given the time of this. Get 'em telt! Right, poor ending to what was like a good opening five minutes of a good 15 minute match. *1/2

"Macho Man" Randy Savage © vs. George "The Animal" Steele - WWE Intercontinental Championship

Steele is great entertainment to me. He's clearly not a very good wrestler, but he's a guy who knew how to work within his limitations most of the time, and he had bags of charisma and knew how to work it. Steele's... erm... unorthodox style unnerves Savage, so he has to use both his speed and his skill to try and get ahead in the match, and it helps when Elizabeth is on the floor and Steele gets distracted by her just standing thre doing nothing. If you want a match which is more of a spectacle than anything else, this is for you. Technically, it's pretty dreadful, but I won't be worrying myself with that. It's just a stupid amount of fun. **1/4

George Wells vs. Jake "The Snake" Roberts

Well, I have no idea who George Wells is, so I can imagine this isn't going to end well. Wells has clearly thought the same thing so goes right to work on Roberts before the bell even rings. Roberts tries to use his smarts, but Wells just uses sheer power and determination for the most part. So Roberts winds up going for the cheap shots instead. Those work a wee bit better than what he tried before. It's basically Wells doing him in and Roberts getting the DDT. Nothing to see here. N/A

Rowdy Roddy Piper vs. Mr. T, Boxing Match

Matches with gimmicks like this never seem to go well. We've seen MMA and Sumo matches before and they have been undeniable failures. This match does a better job than those ones. It's high on the drama. Both guys have a degree of success in the match. Piper looked brilliant in the second round and when Mr. T came into it in the third and fourth, Piper got the f**k out of dodge by getting DQed. If you're gonna do a gimmick overload match, just do it like a normal wrestling match and it should work fine. ***

Fabulous Moolah © vs. Velvet McIntyre - WWE Women's Championship

This venue features the most boring ring announcer of all time, who uses his monotone voice to say each competitor's last name twice, just for extra annoyance. Moolah gets us going by ragdolling McIntyre all over the shop which is great fun. Insane pace to this match, but it only lasts about two minutes so you can afford to do that! McIntyre misses a Splash and Moolah gets the pin after that. McIntyre is brushed aside quicker than Brooklyn Brawler on a bad day. N/A

Nikolai Volkoff vs. Coproral Kirchner

Quite heated stuff here actually. Which I suppose it should be with the Soviet guy facing off against the all American army man. There's even blood and the referee goes down and just generally nuts stuff. I wonder if these two guys ever did a proper brawl, because this is like one of them matches you used to get on RAW where two guys would just cane each other for a couple of minutes. It's short, but it's good enough to rate. *1/2

Battle Royal

Right, I don't particularly like Battle Royals. So I don't plan on watching this. What I will say is that there are several sports stars in the ring for it and the fans appear to care about it. I don't. N/A

The British Bulldogs © vs. Dream Team - WWE World Heavyweight Championship

The Bulldogs have Ozzy Osbourne in their corner to help with the threat of Johnny Valiant on the floor. This match should be really good. These two teams actually had a load of good matches around this time. Dynamite Kid's Snap Suplex really is a thing of beauty. Anyone who's used to the tag formula of these days could be caught off guard by this. This is some good two sided stuff between the two teams. Valentine's selling is a bit comic at times and it doesn't really work with the match. Especially when Beefcake comes in all fire and fury. It's a minor gripe though because it's the best match on the show so far. ***1/2

Hercules Hernandez vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat

Hercules is not a very good wrestler. Continually here he is too slow to do what he's supposed to do. Almost every single Arm Drag looks iffy as a result, and he completely fucks up a pickup of Steamboat. Steamboat's someone who I've always considered to be the best, and he did well to make Hercules' offense look as good as he could. In saying that, Hercules' big Clothesline looked terrific. This almost salvages the match, but I still wouldn't advise watching this. *3/4

"Adorable" Adrian Adonis vs. Uncle Elmer

Are we about to go from utterly mediocre to utter shite? Adonis, to his credit, shows willingness to bump like an absolute maniac. It's definitely at Ziggler/Hennig levels. Elmer is absolutely fucking rancid, and the longer the match goes, the more you just can't cover for him. I'm not wanting to put a DUD in there though, because Adonis worked like mental here. 1/2*

Terry and Hoss Funk vs. Tito Santana and Junk Yard Dog

There's a lot of decent talent in this match. Hoss Funk just looks like Terry Funk, except he has blonde hair. Funk is a lot more comic than people are used to seeing here, as he spends some time tripping over both himself and the ropes. It does add to the mood of the match, which is both heated and fun. An odd mix, but it works here. Santana was wonderful to watch in there. Especially when he went into desperation mode. JYD and both Funks were fun together. Overall, this is fun tag stuff, and maybe even a bit underrated. **1/2

Hulk Hogan © vs. King Kong Bundy - WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Seeing more King Kong Bundy should definitely be on the plans of any wrestling fan. Bundy was a superb immovable object. The good thing about Bundy is that he's mobile for a big man, but not so much so that he starts wrestling like someone who's smaller. Hogan comes into the match with a bad back, and as a result, much of the focus goes onto that. There's also Hogan's rage, which is put over by Hogan's aggression leading to Bundy getting busted open. Some serious drama in the match. Anyone who doesn't like the Hulk Up or superman comeback will not be a fan of how this turns out, but f**k it, this is an enjoyable main event. ***

There's a LOT of stuff on this show. Nothing classic, but at the same time, the good stuff is better than the previous year's. It's a decent Wrestlemania.

[Ludo*1]

Bret Hart thinks Michael McGillicutty should end the streak.

He was joking.

[Bert Raccoon]

Looking forward to the review of Wrestlemania III, far better than the first two and it has a few absolute classic matches.

[DomDom]

WWE Wrestlemania III

This is the biggest one yet and it looks like a proper spectacle.

The Can-Am Connection vs. Magnificent Muraco and "Cowboy" Bob Orton

The Connection is Tom Zenk and Rick Martel. That is one class tag team right there. The weird fluency in timing in this match reminded me of a toned down version of Young Bucks matches. This is not a bad thing. The Can-Am Connection would do much better than this in Japan, but this is a very good introduction to them for those who aren't familiar with them. Muraco and Orton don't get much in the way of a showcase here, but that wasn't the point of the match anyways. Good fun here. **1/4

Billy Jack Haynes vs. Hercules

There is not much promise in this match. I'll say one thing about Hercules. Boy knows how to land a Clothesline. The match was completely focused on the Full Nelson and to Hercules' credit, he was on his game in this one and his more methodical style complimented the fire and fury of Haynes well. His execution of a lot of moves still leaves a lot to be desired. Poor finish for the match given that they were building the drama of it well and it seemed to be a big deal. **

King Kong Bundy, Little Tokyo and Lord Littlebrock vs. Hillbilly Jim, Little Beaver and The Haiti Kid

You just know that this one isn't going to end well at all. The midgets are a lot of fun when they're in there, and the commentators are right to comment on the pace of them. The ending of the match is terrific as it shows the sheer level of King Kong Bundy's madness. Before that, it's fun enough, but there's just a lot of nothing here. *

"The King" Harley Race vs. Junkyard Dog

I love watching Harley Race doing the silly bumps over the ropes. JYD's punches make him look like a real threat as well. When Race gets serious, he's an excellent wrestler. JYD is unfortunately not much more than a fun gimmick though, and I think this match exposed that just a touch. Still, they kept it reasonably short. *1/2

The Rougeau Brothers vs. The Dream Team

Give this match a bit of time and this should be a good tag team match. The pace is decent and there's a lot of stuff going on, but it just all feels so meaningless and like it has no feeling to it. It's a good enough way to pass the time I suppose and keeps the inoffensive run of matches on this show going. **

Adrian Adonis vs. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper - Hair vs. Hair Match

Adrian Adonis looks like he's absolutely all business here. Sure enough, these two guys look like they absolutely want to kill each other right from the word go. The crowd go MENTAL for everything that Piper does in this, especially when it involves getting shots in on Jimmy Hart. This match is an example of how good pure drama can be. Technically, it can be shit at times, but the match is drama overload and as a result it sends the crowd mental. I absolutely love this stuff. ***1/2

After helping Roddy Piper get his big win, Brutus Beefcake cuts the hair of Adrian Adonis, and would forever become The Barber.

The Hart Foundation and Danny Davis vs. The British Bulldogs and Tito Santana

Jimmy Hart's bad luck continues as the dog chases him right out of the ring and then he gets a doing. Just look at the sheer talent in this match. This match kinda feels like it's about as close to a "phone it in" quality match as you can possibly get from this particular combination of guys, and even then, they're practically incapable of putting on anything less than a pretty good match. It's obvious that everyone wants to get their hands on Danny Davis, but they don't focus enough of the match on that. When Danny Davis DOES get in there though, all three of the other team manage to get their hands on him, including Davey Boy landing a VICIOUS Tombstone, which makes the fact that Danny Davis gets the pin in the end even more amusing. As I said, it feels like everyone wasn't on their A game, but it's still good stuff. ***1/4

Koko B. Ware vs. "The Natural" Butch Reed

Finally a pretty poor match on this show. Neither of these guys is very good and they don't have much of a story going, other than Reed being the generic heel and Koko waving his arms a bit. Koko jobbing makes me reasonably happy though. I'll give it a score for that. *

Randy Savage © vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat - WWE Intercontinental Championship

This is regarded as one of the best Wrestlemania matches ever. I'm not sure I would go quite that far. Early doors Steamboat's aggression is his undoing, and that allows Savage to use his cunning to be able to turn things in his favour pretty quickly. This becomes a constant problem for Steamboat through the match and Savage keeps on doing everything he can to do as much damage as humanly possible. I think my only problem with it is that Savage suddenly decides to go for the throat a good way through the match, even though he's put across in the match as this super smart wrestler. And it's a pretty big flaw. That aside though, this is the first truly great Wrestlemania match. ****1/2

Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. The Honky Tonk Man

Alice Cooper is with Jake Roberts. Roberts wasn't quite the finished article the year before, but he looked much more like the Jake Roberts that would tear things up for a good few years at this point. The DDT was insanely over by this point. It's a shame how far it's fallen, because if that move was debuted today, it'd look just as vicious as it did back then. This match features a LOT of stalling to cover for the weaknesses of HTM in his period of control. You can see why later on when he bores us to tears. It's clear that this match is a bit long for what they were going for. *1/4

Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik vs. The Killer Bees

When the match gets going, the ring is still full of the rubbish flung while Volkoff was singing. It makes for an interesting little visual at least. This isn't much different from the Dream Team match from earlier on actually. The main difference is just how mental the crowd are for the match. It also really was just there to give "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan something to do for the night. So yeah, a wee bit of filler of the show. **

Hulk Hogan © vs. Andre the Giant - WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Andre the Giant gets the garbage treatement also, although I suppose if Volkoff can get it, so can this guy, as this crowd seems to hate him with a pure passion. The staredown for this one is one of them classic images that everyone remembers. This match actually has a few iconic moments. Is the match actually any good? Well, I'm not sure that was the point of this match. The point is the spectacle and on that count, this match delivers on every level. The way Andre just walks around beating on Hogan and just looking like he doesn't care makes him look menacing as f**k. So much was also put on the slam, so with Andre looking like an even bigger monster than he was, it made the moment even more amazing when it did come. I don't mind putting this match into thumbs up territory. ***

There's a ton of fun stuff on this one. It has the first genuinely great Wrestlemania match, some of the most iconic matches ever to take place at Wrestlemania and more of the matches felt like big deals. They really seemed to be coming into their stride at this point.

Edited April 15, 2013 by DomDom

[Derek Patterson]